Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Jim Castagnera: Daniel Day-Lewis *is* Lincoln

Jim Castagnera is the Managing Director of K&C Human Resource Enterprises He is the author of nearly 20 books, including Al Qaeda Goes to College; Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires ; and the upcoming Counter Terrorism Issues: Case Studies in the Courtroom Daniel Day-Lewis is Lincoln.  In a long life I have seen only a handful of actors who, in a handful of films, so completely encompass their characters that I forget it’s only acting.  Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump comes to mind.  The recent Time cover story on Spielberg’s new film claims that after the acclaimed director tapped the acclaimed actor for the title role, Day-Lewis insisted on a year’s hiatus to study the acclaimed president he would play.

National Building Museum in DC explores history of play with building blocks in new exhibit

WASHINGTON — The National Building Museum in Washington is opening a new hands-on exhibit focused on building blocks and the history of architectural toys.The new installation, “Play, Work, Build,” opens Sunday at the museum as part of a collaboration with the design firm Rockwell Group....

Where Irish ‘Troubles’ Began, the Arts Heal

BRENDAN SPIEGEL is a travel writer for the New York Times.“SUPPORT OUR POWS. END TORTURE IN MAGHABERRY. RELEASE MARIAN PRICE,” scream the block-letter graffiti messages lining the 400-year-old stone walls that surround the historic center of Derry in Northern Ireland. Ascending the long staircase leading to the walls, I paused and looked back down the hill at a sign reading, “You Are Now Entering Free Derry.” Behind it, a somber mural depicted a gas mask-clad young man enveloped in a battle scene. At a glance, one might think I had stepped into a war zone.In fact, this once hotly contested city is far from it. As I wandered under an archway and into the walled city, I was a bit taken aback by just how far.The notes of a classical piano piece rang out from the First Derry Presbyterian Church, the clomps of an Irish step-dancing class echoed loudly through the narrow streets, and a chorus of enthusiastic buskers belted out tunes for passing shoppers. A rainbow-colored tourist trolley swung a busload of photo-snappers around the corner....

Shooting Lincoln: How local talent and the Virginia film industry made Spielberg’s blockbuster possible

Lincoln never would have been made without the 200 block of East Main Street in Charlottesville. It may sound like gross hyperbole, but it’s true in a very mundane and specific kind of way. Because Erica Arvold—film producer, casting director, and acting advocate—has her office in a building there, and she was responsible for hundreds of the extras and principals who will fill the screen in Steven Spielberg’s epic depiction of the last four months in the life of the Great Emancipator.According to a third party consultant’s report, the State of Virginia offered $3.5 million in tax rebates to DreamWorks, which in turn generated $32.3 million of direct spending in Virginia, 518 jobs, and a total economic impact of $64 million. Those don’t sound like union numbers to me, but let’s not split hairs. Bringing a Spielberg production to town is good news.Down in the basement of the same building where Arvold has an office, James “Ike” Eichling runs Ike’s Underground, a vintage clothing store. Eichling got one of those 518 jobs and the chance to sit across the table from Daniel Day-Lewis for two days playing Postmaster General William Dennison, a member of Lincoln’s cabinet and a powerful member of the Whig party....Related Links

David Thomson: Spielberg's "Lincoln" is a Film for our Political Moment

David Thomson is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film and Have You Seen? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films.Now that films have wormed their way into the timeless halls of art, and now that technology permits audiences to watch when it suits them, the opening of a film means less and less. Still, some cling to the belief (or the hope) that a movie carries a special meaning at the weekend or the day of its opening. There is enough of a newspaper’s transient urgency in a movie to make it a sensation on Friday and a throwaway a week later. I’m not suggesting that Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (let alone Daniel Day-Lewis’s picture) will burn off that fast. Still, to see it in the immediate aftermath of Barack Obama’s second election is the way to go. You can tell yourself that the resulting surge of emotion is a matter of chance, or God-given, but then you realize that Steven must have organized it this way. He foresaw our moment, he designed his opening, and Lincoln is especially momentous as the second Obama administration realizes there is no peace for the elected. It would have had a different resonance if the November 6 result had gone the other way. But Steven—not for the first time—planned an opening that would work either way.

In ‘Roads of Arabia,’ dusting off ideas about a kingdom and civilization

A major exhibition of ancient objects excavated in the Arabian Peninsula opens Saturday at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.“Roads of Arabia: Archeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” organized by the Sackler Gallery and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, is the first U.S. venue for the exhibit and part of the gallery’s 25th-anniversary celebration.The collection includes more than 200 objects, ranging from alabaster bowls, gold earrings and bronze statues to early 20th-century photographs of Mecca, Medina and Riyadh. Officials said they hope the exhibit will enhance understanding of a nation often viewed simply as the world’s largest exporter of oil.“This is a new window to see a country that has never been thought of or seen in the arena of heritage, development of civilization, and culture,” said Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, son of the Saudi crown prince and president of the Saudi tourism commission, who was in town Wednesday to promote the exhibit....

Peter Galuszka: 150 Years After the War, Richmond Embraces ‘Lincoln.’

Peter Galuszka blogs at Bacon’s Rebellion. The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All Opinions Are Local....Although the ["Lincoln’s"] setting is in the District, notably the White House, parts of Richmond and Petersburg fill in for much for the Nation’s Capital. When filming began a little more than a year ago with the enthusiastic support and the financial help of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, 1,200 local people were hired as extras....There’s something oddly ironic about all this. Such Lincoln fervor is wildly out of synch with the real history of places like Richmond, the former Capital of the Confederacy that was burned to ashes by Union troops in 1865 on Lincoln’s command. Petersburg, which has the largest collection of antebellum houses still standing, was the scene of much bloodshed.

Jon Wiener: Oliver Stone's 'Untold History'

Jon Wiener teaches US history at UC Irvine. His most recent book is "How We Forgot the Cold War."If you thought Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States—a ten-part documentary series premiering November 12 on Showtime—would offer a series of conspiracy theories concerning the American past, you would be wrong. Despite Stone’s 1991 film JFK, there’s no JFK assassination conspiracy here—just a statement that the public found “unconvincing” the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. There’s no 9/11 conspiracy, and no allegations that Franklin Roosevelt schemed in secret to get the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor as a backdoor way to force the United States into World War II. The series’ massive, 750-page companion volume, co-written with historian Peter Kuznick, also shuns conspiracy theories.

Andrew Roberts: What Have They Done to James Bond?

Mr. Roberts, a historian, is the author most recently of "The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War" (Harper, 2011).James Bond, of all people, has turned metrosexual. "Skyfall," the 23rd movie in the genre—directed by Sam Mendes and opening in theaters Friday—has somehow turned the all-encompassing man's man into a kinder, gentler Bond.There are still the casual killings and car chases, of course, but Bond has been shorn of that subtly menacing blend of sadism and political incorrectness that set him apart from Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt and all the other identikit espionage heroes. By making Bond less personally dangerous, and even hinting at a bisexual past, the guardians of his brand are undermining precisely what has made that brand so special. This is all the more astonishing since the first 22 Bond films cost $1.55 billion to make but made $10.41 billion at the box office.

What Really Drives the Rolling Stones

It’s Rolling Stones week:  their latest greatest-hits package “GRRR!” is available today.  It contains 50 tracks, ranging from their ’63 debut single “Come On” to “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot,” two new songs recorded in August in Paris, where the Stones played a club set last month.And on Thursday, Brett Morgen’s documentary “Crossfire Hurricane” has its premiere on HBO.  It shines a light on the history of the Stones while not quite revealing, at least not explicitly, how they remained great despite the kind of turmoil that now seems a perverse form of wish fulfillment.

‘How did this happen?’: Speakeasy, saloon hatchet help tell tale of Prohibition at Pa. exhibit

PHILADELPHIA — A hatchet used to bust up saloons, the verdict sheet from Al Capone’s trial, and lawman Eliot Ness’ sworn oath of office are among the more sobering artifacts in a new exhibit documenting the driest period in U.S. history.But the items help tell a lively tale as part of “American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.” The installation now on view at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia also includes a re-created speakeasy, where visitors can learn the lingo and fashions of the Roaring ‘20s and even how to dance the Charleston.“We’ve never had as much fun building an exhibition,” said Stephanie Reyer, one of its developers. “Of the 27 amendments we have to work with, this is by far the sexiest.”...

“Mankind: The Story of All of Us.” -- Yes, a Big Topic. Want to Fight About It?

...In 2010 History checked in with the 12-hour “America: The Story of Us,” and on Tuesday night it applies the formulas used in that mini-series to the even more all-encompassing “Mankind: The Story of All of Us.” That preposterously grandiose title really needed to be strung out a bit to give an accurate picture of the program. Something like, “Mankind: The Story of All of Us, Delivered Somewhat Superficially by People You Know and Love, Because We Don’t Want to Bore You.”The series, at least judging from the first two hours, feels as if its broadcast incarnation is a secondary concern. What it is really aiming for is the high school market. It’s a quick survey of our species’ high points — walking upright, cultivating seeds, learning more efficient ways to kill one another — delivered in student-friendly fashion with a stay-awake soundtrack and a narrator (Josh Brolin) who intones the important points in imposing, write-this-down fashion....

New installation in Union Square puts a face on veterans' experiences

Daniel Day-Lewis, who stars in the new movie "Lincoln," isn't the only person lending a contemporary voice to our 16th president. The Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, renowned for his projections on facades and monuments around the world, has created his first projection onto a statue, a 23-minute video containing edited interviews with 14 U.S. veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that animate Lincoln's mute bronze figure, bringing it movingly to life.Presented by More Art and the Polish Cultural Institute New York, in conjunction with the Union Square Partnership, the installation, entitled, "Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection," has been timed to honor Veterans Day and is on view in Union Square Park from Thursday through Dec. 9, between 6 p.m. and 10 pm....

NYT calls "Lincoln" "among the finest films ever made about American politics"

It is something of a paradox that American movies — a great democratic art form, if ever there was one — have not done a very good job of representing American democracy. Make-believe movie presidents are usually square-jawed action heroes, stoical Solons or ineffectual eggheads, blander and more generically appealing than their complicated real-life counterparts, who tend to be treated deferentially or ignored entirely unless they are named Richard Nixon.The legislative process — the linchpin of our system of checks and balances — is often treated with lofty contempt masquerading as populist indignation, an attitude typified by the aw-shucks antipolitics of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Hollywood dreams of consensus, of happy endings and box office unity, but democratic government can present an interminable tale of gridlock, compromise and division. The squalor and vigor, the glory and corruption of the Republic in action have all too rarely made it onto the big screen.

Dueling Biopics in Works for the Beatles’ Manager

Within the world of obsessive Beatles fans, a small but vocal group has long argued that the accomplishments of Brian Epstein, the band’s visionary manager, have been underplayed in the many tellings of the Beatles’ story. But suddenly, 45 years after Epstein’s death from what was ruled an accidental drug overdose, Epstein will have his moment to shine on the silver screen. Not one but two biopics – one to be based on a graphic novel – are in the works.So far, the starrier of them will feature the busy Benedict Cumberbatch as Epstein. Mr. Cumberbatch — whose roles have included the physicist Stephen Hawking, as well as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC’s “Sherlock” and Peter Guillam in the recent film version of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” — also has roles in Peter Jackson’s coming film version of “The Hobbit” and will be the villain in the next “Star Trek” film, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”...

George Washington, other Founding Fathers play key roles in new Assassin’s Creed video game

McLEAN, Va. — Wars and video games seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. But those games usually involve tanks and machine guns and Tet offensives; not horses, bayonets and Bunker Hill.Now, though, one of the biggest game releases of the upcoming holiday season is immersing players in the Revolutionary War, with key cameos from George Washington, Ben Franklin and other Founding Fathers.Assassin’s Creed III is due for release Tuesday. In some ways, the game is meticulous with historical accuracy. Great attention was paid to research to recreate the cities of New York and Boston on a one-third scale. History professors were brought in as consultants....

Flashing lights, clacking keys welcome visitors to Seattle’s new Living Computer Museum

SEATTLE — For tourists with an interest in Seattle’s role as a high-tech hub, there hasn’t been much here to see, other than driving over to Microsoft headquarters in suburban Redmond to take pictures of a bunch of boring buildings.But Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has just opened the Living Computer Museum, with displays of old machines — all in working order — along with a geeky wish list of items he’d like to add, just in case anybody out there has an old tape drive or super-computer sitting around.Visitors who stop by the nondescript building in an industrial section of Seattle south of the baseball stadium are likely to see technicians in white lab coats working on the machines. But this place is not just for nerds and techies. Since the museum’s Oct. 25 opening, many visitors have been families, and their questions have not been the expected queries concerning technical specs of machines, but rather where did the curators find these artifacts and what were they used for....

Library of Congress exhibit celebrates Jewish history, artifacts

WASHINGTON — A 19th century copy of the U.S. Constitution in Yiddish and Hebrew. A 15th century Hebrew book from Italy open to a page of passages that had been censored by the Catholic Church during the Inquisition. A 20th century “Curious George” children’s book translated into Yiddish.Spanning across the centuries and the globe, they’re all part of a new exhibit, “Words Like Sapphires,” which celebrates 100 years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress.The exhibit features some 60 objects, religious and lighter fare, drawn from the Library of Congress’ more than 200,000-piece Hebraica collection. The collection includes works in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino (or Judeo-Spanish), Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac and Amharic (from Ethiopia)....

Rethinking the Armory Show at N-YHS

In 1913 — a few months short of a century ago — you are in New York City, not yet the world cultural capital. It’s a seething, manic place, with a powerful but provincial population. Wall Street is challenging London’s dominance of the international stock market, and finishing touches are being put on the highest high-rise on the planet, the Woolworth Building, in Lower Manhattan.But beneath the cheers and the whir of machines, there is another sound: shouting, as 10,000 women demanding the vote march down Fifth Avenue, and a mass protest by striking mill workers fills Madison Square Garden to the explosion point.At one time, a New Yorker rattled by noise and change could seek solace in art, in the visual smoothness and moral sureties of, say, Gilded Age painting, with its lush landscapes, classical tableaus and teatime interiors. Now, suddenly, that option was being all but closed....

A Collector’s Legacy of War Machines in Repose

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. — A tank museum anywhere is a strange spectacle. It documents humanity’s ingenuity and ambition, and also its desire to demolish whatever is in its path with terrifying finality.A tank museum tucked into the tranquil hills here is stranger still. A tiny town west of Stanford University, Portola Valley is the sort of place where breezes tinged with the scent of old money and horse manure waft through picturesque woodlands, and leaf blowers that don’t even reach the noise level of a moderately crowded Manhattan singles bar are officially prohibited.Yet Portola Valley is where you’ll find the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, one of the nation’s most intriguing museums. On the right day, you might find Tom Sator there, too....